Tot School, Week 3: Letter C, Clouds, Corn & Cars

Breck is 41 months
Rowan is 16 months

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This week I did things a little different.

Rowan hasn't been joining us much for Tot School since she is usually taking a nap during the times I'm working with Breck. So, in order to include her more throughout the week, I've decided that while Breck is at preschool, she and I will have our own time together for school!

I just decided this on Monday, while Breck was at preschool, so this week hasn't been very organized for her learning.

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Monday

I Spy Tub
I only put a few things in this tub, since Rowan has a tendency to put things in her mouth...food or otherwise. She did really well with this activity and played with it for a solid 10 minutes!



Shape Sorter



Hide & Seek



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Tuesday

Cars Sequencing Game




I originally bought these stickers for potty training rewards, but as odds would have it, Breck couldn't care less about stickers and chocolate did (and still does) the trick.
That's my boy.

So, we have an entire book full of Cars stickers and decided that they'd serve us better by actually being put to use!

Nicole from Tired, Need Sleep has a great grid printable that has multiple uses! I used it to make our sequencing game.


Painting Car Tracks

(for the life of me, I can't find the blog where I originally saw this.)
I had Breck use primary colors in the hopes that this art project would also teach him about mixing colors. But it didn't. I pointed out that there was now green in his tracks painting, but he didn't care....maybe one day!
:)
Cars with low tread worked the best - and I used a toothbrush to scrub the wheels clean.


Story Time

I originally planned to read one book about cars but the kids picked out a few more and we ended up reading the following books...none about cars.:

Title: Corn
Author: Elaine Landau

This book was ok. It's more in-depth than my 3 and 1 year old care to hear! But, I skimmed and talked about the main points which seemed to do the trick. It has a lot of good info, such as types of corn and how corn is used, where it's grown, etc.


Title: How Many Snails?: A Counting Book
Author: Paul Giganti, Jr.

I bought this book several years ago at a library book sale. This book had not been touched by either child until today, when Breck grabbed it off the shelf! Each page has a different theme for your child to count and many ways in which to count them, such as by color, shape, or various other similarities.

Breck counted 1-14 all by himself without missing a number!


Title: The Year of No More Corn
Author: Helen Ketteman

I was a little underwhelmed by this book. Breck seemed to like it enough, though. It's a grandpa telling a tall tale to his grandson about a really hard year of farming.


Letter C

The kids both had a large letter C that they were to color.
Breck colored the crazies out of his C and Rowan made a few small scribbles.
Then I cut out Breck's C and he glued it to another sheet of paper.
After that, both kids glued pictures of things that start with C to their cutout.
(yes, Rowan even worked with the glue! It was her first time and she did great!)



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Thursday

Learning About Corn
We had to supplement this book, as it does not mention no-till farming as a way to plant and grow corn. ;)

Title: From Kernel to Corn
Author: Robin Nelson


Stages of Corn: A Reenactment
When I can't get Breck to sit down for a craft, we do something physical.
And I thought this was fitting!

seed & sprout,


a growing plant,


stalk with ears,


and finally an edible ear!



Corn Craft
(I saw this craft on the Katherine Marie Photography blog.)



I got the ear of corn template here.
I separated the pattern into cob and husk and then cut them out in the appropriate colors in foam.

Then I photocopied a page from the corn book. The original idea was for Breck to cut out pieces of the pictures of corn kernels, but he only wanted to make fringe, so I cut out small pieces and he glued them on.



"Corn" Paintings
This craft was supposed to be a combo of this corn cob painting craft and this bubble wrap/rolling pin craft, but Breck refused to use yellow paint. So, his "corn" is blue.



Letter Search
(I also got this idea from the Katherine Marie Photography blog.)

Breck loved this letter search game when I was putting it together, but on this day he only played with it for about 3 minutes before calling it good.


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Friday
Friday's Tot School only lasted about 20 minutes - due to a lack of interest by both kids.
But, here's what we managed to do:

Learning About Clouds

Title: Clouds
Author: Marion Dane Bauer

This book is fantastic!!!
It teaches what clouds are made of, the three main types and has some fun facts at the end, all while being short, sweet and entertaining.

Rowan love, love, loves this book!
At least twice a day she'll bring it to me. Sometimes it's sitting out in the open and other times she has to find it on the bookshelf...but she always finds it!


Cloud Craft
Breck got to choose which type of cloud he wanted to make - he chose a cumulus cloud!



(those are raindrops under the clouds)